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Before last November, Wolfville, N.S., was best known as a university town and quaint tourist destination.

But all that changed when it became the first municipality in Canada to pass a bylaw to ban smoking in cars carrying anyone younger than 18.

Now, the community has become the centre of a national movement against lighting up in cars with children, the latest anti-smoking campaign that is sweeping across Canada and picking up considerable political willpower along the way.

Since Wolfville adopted the historic bylaw less than four months ago, the entire province of Nova Scotia has moved to ban smoking in cars with kids under a law expected to take effect in the near future.

British Columbia's government promised to create a ban in its Throne Speech earlier this month, while Summerside, PEI, recently adopted a motion to prohibit smoking in cars carrying kids. A spokesman for Ontario Minister of Health Promotion Margarett Best said the government is considering a ban, and a private member's bill is currently making its way through the province's legislature. Numerous other provinces including Manitoba, New Brunswick and Newfoundland say they're considering similar action.

"I'm optimistic that in 2008 we're going to have several provinces join Nova Scotia. We now have unstoppable momentum on this issue," said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society.

Few public health issues have attracted such attention and triggered such rapid political change in recent years as the issue of smoking in cars with children. For instance, drivers can still talk freely on their cellphones in most parts of the country, despite years of urging from medical experts to ban the practice and mounting evidence it can increase the risk of collisions.

The speed and success of the move to ban lighting up when kids are in the car shows how an aggressive campaign by powerful advocacy groups, public fear for children's health, an increasing taboo on smoking and the political domino effect have combined to create a major public policy change.

"If we were to look six months ago, no one would have predicted that things would have moved so quickly on this issue," Mr. Cunningham said. "It's an issue whose time has come."

Although the idea of a smoking ban in cars has been floated in the past, particularly after some U.S. states and Australia passed laws on the issue, most observers credit a small grassroots organization in Wolfville as the catalyst for change in Canada. The group, called Smoke Free Kings, found significant support when it approached town council with the idea of a ban several months ago. But they didn't anticipate how fast support would grow from there.

"I have never seen anything happen so quickly," said Lila Hope-Simpson, the group's administrative co-ordinator. "It snowballed. It went faster than anybody was expecting."

When the ban was adopted, major organizations including the Ontario Medical Association, the Canadian Lung Association, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Cancer Society seized the momentum by launching focused campaigns designed to win public support and pressure politicians to take action. For some of the large non-profit organizations, that meant taking advantage of individual chapters throughout the country to help spread the message.

"Clearly [the campaigns have] been a factor," Mr. Cunningham said. "This is an issue that resonates with people."

Earlier this month, the Ontario Medical Association published a report showing that children can be exposed to 60 times the concentration of secondhand smoke in cars compared with less confined indoor spaces.

"It's very concentrated, the dose and the concentration of the toxins, and the time they have to spend in close proximity [to secondhand smoke]," said Janice Willett, president of the association.

Provinces such as Alberta and Quebec are holdouts, saying they're not ready to consider a ban on smoking in cars with kids.

Regardless, Dr. Willett said that focusing public attention on the dangers of smoking in cars will serve a larger purpose by reminding people not to smoke in front of children and to consider quitting.

One leading smoking cessation expert said the medical community has long known about the health hazards of lighting up in the car when kids are present. But the rapid response from various provinces is a prime example of how quickly politicians can be prompted to move on an issue that has won popular support, said Roberta Ferrence, executive director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at the University of Toronto.

"It makes an idea seem more generally acceptable" when a city becomes the first to take action on a potentially controversial issue, she said.

Similarly rapid political movement occurred several years ago when Canadian cities began to ban smoking in public places, Dr. Ferrence said.

"It was kind of a domino effect."

Wolfville's ban and subsequent support from other parts of the country have attracted some opposition from civil liberties and smokers' rights groups, who argue that the government shouldn't be able to dictate whether people can smoke in the semi-private space of their car.

But the resistance has failed to gain much traction, an indicator of how strong public support for smoking restrictions has become in recent years, particularly when children are involved, according to Ms. Hope-Simpson.

"There aren't too many people, even if they believe it, [who are] going to say 'I want to smoke in my car with my kids in there.' "

Where provinces stand

British Columbia

In its Throne Speech this month, the government promised to create a ban.

Alberta

Not considering a ban. Health Minister Dave Hancock's opinion "is that you shouldn't be smoking in the car when you have children, end of story, but [there's] nothing on the books right now," spokeswoman

Shannon Haggarty said.

Saskatchewan

Not considering a ban.

Manitoba

The government is considering

a ban, but will watch how it works in other provinces before making a decision. "We'll be watching very closely to see what happens," said Minister of Healthy Living Kerri Irvin-Ross.

Ontario

The government is considering

a new law. Liberal MPP David Orazietti has tabled a private member's bill to create a ban.

Quebec

The government is not considering taking action because it

considers a ban too invasive.

New Brunswick

The government is considering creating a ban.

Nova Scotia

The government has passed

a province-wide ban that is

expected to take effect soon.

Prince Edward Island

Although its second largest city, Summerside, adopted a motion to ban smoking in cars with kids, the government is not considering taking action on the issue.

Newfoundland

Several small communities are

reportedly interested in creating a ban and the government is "monitoring the approach of some other jurisdictions" in order to determine what action should be taken, said Glenda Power, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Community Services.

Carly Weeks